Pain Management in the Emergency Department

1. Pain Management in the Emergency Department Leslie S. Zun, MD, MBA, FAAEM Chairman and Professor Department of Emergency Medicine Chicago Medical School and Mount Sinai Hospital Chicago, Illinois

2. Why Optimize Patient Management • Ensure that patients who need pain medications get them • Minority patients • Pediatric patients • Reduce errors in administration of pain medications • Prevent inadequate dosing • Improve proper medication selection • Increase pain dosing schedules • Reduce variability in patient care

3. What can be Undertaken to Improve Patient Pain Treatment? • Feedback process • Charting systems • Treatment guidelines • Establish criteria for administration of pain medications • Use of unit dose • Quality improvement process

4. How to Automate the Process • Can feedback loops link pain assessments and treatments • At triage • During physician evaluation • During wait time for tests and consultations • At discharge • Can the feedback loops be automated to appear on the chart at selected times

5. Charting systemsCan Pain Treatment be Automated? • Need for sophisticated electronic medical record that interface with physician order entry • Standardize pain assessment • Begin pain treatment at triage • If no pain meds after predetermined time, the chart will be flagged • Means to double check drug dosing • Repeat treatment times can be noted in the chart

6. Standardize Pain Assessment • Numerical rating scale measures pain from 0–10 or 0–100 with endpoints of “no pain” and “worst pain ever” • Visual analog scale measures pain with a 10cm line with endpoints for “no pain and worst pain ever” • Categorical pain scale for pain relief or pain intensity using a 4-point scale (no pain to severe pain)

7. Treatment Guidelines or Pathways • Guidelines for common pain conditions such as sickle cell, trauma, fractures, chest pain • Guidelines begin in triage and follow patient through the ED visit • Encourage the appropriate use of pain medications • Standing orders for nurses to give the pain medication beginning in triage • OTC meds or narcotic agents

8. Treatment Guidelines or Pathways • Guidelines for standard dosing • Use of patient directed narcotic administration (patient controlled anesthesia) in the ED • Standardize discharge instructions

9. Standardize Discharge Instructions • Use computerized discharge instructions • Let the patient control or modulate his\her own pain • Prescribed standardized dosing • Add adjunct instructions to the treatment plan • Establish a set of follow-up times depending on the discharge diagnosis

10. Establish Criteria to Start Pain Meds Early in Patient Care • Use pain assessments frequently to determine patient’s pain level • Agreement to treat patients prior to the arrival of consultants or test results • Need buy-in from the surgical services • Dispel the myths concerning early pain treatment

11. Dispel Myths • Administration of analgesic in acute abdomen does not change physical exam LoVeechio, F, Oster, N, Sturman, K, et al: the use of analgesics in patients with acute abdominal pain. J Emerge Med 1997; 15: 775-779. • 53% of the surveyed surgeons stated pain meds precluded a patient from signing a valid informed consent Graber, MA, Ely, JW, Clarke, S, Kurtz, AS, Weir, R: Informed consent and general surgeons’ attitudes toward the use of pain medication in acute abdomen. Am J Emerge Med 1999;17:113-116. • Problems with this view • Pain treatment does not necessarily cloud sensorium • Withholding pain medication could be considered coercion • Pain may in itself cloud a patient’s judgment

12. Use of Unit Dose • Use of standard dosing in the ED for oral agents and intravenous agents • Determine preferred agents • Establish unit dose for such agents as morphine • Ease of ordering and administration

13. Quality Improvement Process • Set monitor criteria • Pain is assessed in triage • Pain treatment initiated in triage • Pain treatment must be continued periodically in the treatment area • If no treatment, reason for non-compliance with established protocol needs to be documented. • Discharge instructions and medications must also be documented

14. What Does it Take to Make it Work? • Dedication to good patient care • Commitment to excellent customer service • Involve all stakeholders in the improvement process • Determine what can be automated • Implement systems that are user friendly

15. Questions? zunl@sinai.org ferne@ferne.org www.ferne.org 2004_saem_zun_pain_management_final.ppt